A not-so-bold declaration
Osama bin Laden says he shan't be captured alive
I'm thinking: That's really not setting the bar too high. I doubt any plans are being rewritten as a result of this information. A few years ago, after all, he suggested he was going to ride a missile or something right into 'the belly of the Eagle.' So there probably wasn't any expectation he was counting on a quiet retirement in his golden years.
...in the fantasy ideology of radical Islam, suicide is not a means to an end but an end in itself. Seen through the distorting prism of radical Islam, the act of suicide is transformed into that of martyrdom — martyrdom in all its transcendent glory and accompanied by the panoply of magical powers that religious tradition has always assigned to martyrdom.
In short, it is a mistake to try to fit such behavior into the mold created by our own categories and expectations.
For Osama to get our attention, he's going to have to come up with something a little more piquant - maybe like:
'I shall defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger in hand-to-hand combat, at the time and place of his choosing!'
Or:
'I'm gonna show up in the Bowery, y'see, and I'm gonna kick youse guys ASSES, y'see, so scrambooch, yer mutha's callin' ya, ok?'
But 'I'll die before you get me in custody'? Our military folks are probably not shaking in their boots over that one.
